Possibly my least favorite movie at Toronto, by contrast, is "Good," which is not. Based on a stage play, it's set in WWII Germany and concerns a weak-willed, mild-mannered academic (Viggo Mortenson) who keeps cutting compromises with the Nazi party until he finds himself wearing a SS uniform at a concentration camp, stunned by the fact that Jews are actually being killed. This is a not unworthy subject -- how we can incrementally lose our souls through daily moral bargaining -- but director Vicente Amorim turns it into hamfisted Holocaust kitsch, complete with single tear running down the star's cheek at the end. Jason Isaacs is quite good as the hero's doomed Jewish friend, but Mortensen fights against his natural gifts (poise, silence, flawed strength) and loses. The funny thing is that I interviewed the actor a few days back during the "Appaloosa" publicity junket, and he urged me to see "Good," convinced of the film's worth and his own performance stretch. I didn't and don't doubt Mortensen's sincerity, but this is not a well-made film. Surprise: Even the most talented actors may not be the best judges of their own movies.

Review by NW
You know something? Some of Hitler's SS weren't all bad. Or so this atrocious moral fable would have us believe. It follows the rise of Mortensen's distracted Aryan academic from humble literature professor to sharp-dressed subcommandant – much to the consternation of his one Jewish pal (Isaacs).

If you're feeling particularly charitable, it's possible to see what Mortensen and Amorim were trying to do with C.P. Taylor's 1981 play – though they utterly fail to pull it off. This is an awful mix of stilted dramatics and faux-ironic posturing, capped off with one of the least appropriate tracking shots in recent memory.

MTA: a couple of years ago, Rogers cable channel 10 broadcast press conferences for the films. I remember seeing Gerard Butler, (presented as "Gerald" to the crowd), who was in Beowulf and Grendel and Matthew MacFadyen, who was there for P&P.

Last edited by fruitbat on Mon Sep 08, 2008 3:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.